I could also feel a couple of long nails biting...
By ketchumayn, 09:25I could also feel
a couple of long nails biting into my palmThe
others felt short and raggedThey must have
broken offSomewhere - perhaps on the carpet
upstairs in Little Pink - were a couple of ghost
fingernails"Go away," I told it"I don't want you anymore,
go away and be deadLike the arm to which it
had once been attached, the hand itched and
throbbed and ached and refused to leave me"Then go find my daughter," I said, and the tears
began to flow"Bring her back, why don't you?
Bring her to meI'll paint anything you want,
just bring her to meI was just a one-armed man with a phantom
itchThe only ghost was his own, drifting around
just over his head, observing all thisThe rolex watches for women creeping in my flesh grew worseI picked the
broom up, weeping now not just from grief but also
from the horrible discomfort of that unreachable
itch, then realized I couldn't do what I needed to
do - a one-armed man can't snap a broomhandle over
his kneeI leaned it against the house again and
stomped it with my good legThere was a snap, and
the bristle end went flyingI held the jagged end
up in front of my streaming eyes and noddedI went around the corner of the house toward the
beach, a distant part of my mind registering the
loud conversation of the shells beneath Big Pink
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as the waves dashed into the darkness there and
then withdrewI had one fleeting thought as I reached the knock off chanel wet
and shining hardpack, dotted here and there with
tennis balls: The third thing Elizabeth had said
to Wireman was You will want to, but you mustn't"Too late," I said, and then the string tethering
the Edgar over my head brokeHe floated away, and
for a little while I knew no more17 - The South End of the Key
i
I next remember Wireman coming along and picking
me upI remember walking a few steps, then
recalling that Ilse was dead and collapsing to my
kneesAnd the most shameful thing was that, even
though I was heartbroken, I was also hungryI remember Wireman helping me in through the open
door and telling me it was all a bad dream, that
I'd been having the horrors, and when I told chanel classic handbag him
no, it was true, Mary Ire had done it, Mary Ire
had drowned Ilse in Ilse's own bathtub, he had
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laughed and said that now he knew itFor one
horrible moment I believed himI pointed to the answering machine"Play the
message," I said, and went into the kitchenStaggered into the kitchenWhen Pam started in
again - Edgar, the police called and they say
Illy's dead! - I was eating fistfuls of Frosted
Mini-Wheats straight from the boxI had a queer
sense of being part of a prepared slideSoon I
would be placed under a microscope and studiedIn
the other room, the message endedWireman cursed
and played it againThe
time I'd spent on the beach before Wireman came
along was missingThat louis vuitton backpacks part of my memory was as
blank as my early hospital stay after my accidentI took a final handful of cereal, crammed it into
my mouth, and swallowedIt stuck in my throat,
and that was goodI hoped it would
choke meI went shuffle-limping back into the living roomWireman was standing beside the answering machine,
wide-eyedwhat in God's name - ?"
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"One of the paintings," I said, and kept on
shufflingNow that I had something in my stomach,
I wanted some more oblivionIf only for a little
whileOnly it was more than wanting, actually


